Among many sub-fields in the general field of medicine, the obtaining of vessel-occluded vital-signs information has gained increasing versatility with the steady arrival of new automated and semiautomated systems. An area within this sub-field which has drawn much creative attention in recent years is that involving non-invasive blood pressure (NIPB) measuring systems and techniques, and a preferred embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in the NIBP setting. In recent medical-advancement history, a leading contributor in this arena has been Protocol Systems Inc. of Beaverton, Oreg., and the following several issued U.S. patents, each of which is incorporated herein by reference, evidence some of the contributions made by this innovative company: U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,133 to Nelson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,710 to Dorsett et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,822 to Taylor et al.
Preliminarily, it should be understood that vital signs monitors are monitors with the capability of measuring various vital signs of a patient including blood pressure, pulse rate, saturated oxygen levels, etc. Blood pressure monitors are monitors that are designed to perform only NIBP. The present invention is usable with vital signs monitors or blood pressure monitors.
Despite the many advances which have been contributed by Protocol and by others in the NIBP field, there has continued to be a need for the payment of further attention to issues involving patient safety and comfort, and to acquisition of blood-pressure data in an independent and precisely controlled fashion which allows for the gathering of such data as rapidly as possible, without having to deal with distracting anomalies created by so-called artifacts in the blood-pressure-signal data stream.
One area where there is a particular need for improvement relates to necessary control of pressure existing in patient-applied blood pressure cuffs. Current NIBP devices use three types of valves for pressure control on patient-applied blood pressure cuffs. The typical method is to turn on a pump to inflate the applied cuff to a predetermined pressure. Controlling this pressure inflation rate and limit is performed by independent pump control, independent valve control or both. The deflation of the cuff pressure is performed by valve control or by forcing air through a specific size port small enough to allow cuff deflation to be at a specific, desired rate. On inflation, pulse width modulation on the pump allows inflation control to be maintained at specific or varied rates.
Another method is to turn on the pump and force the air through a variable orifice similar to a servo valve. The current applied to the valve varies the opening of the valve which controls the inflation rate. On inflation, the pressure in the cuff decreases in either a step bleed or linear bleed manner. Step bleed is performed by opening a valve long enough for the pressure in the cuff to drop a predetermined amount. For example, the pressure in the cuff drops 8 mmHg every time the valve is opened until the pressure in the cuff has reduced to some predetermined level. Then the cuff pressure is rapidly reduced by full opening of the valve.
Linear bleed is performed by using a servo valve or a piezo electric valve. The servo valve uses current control to vary the opening of the valve orifice. When the cuff has reached the target pressure, the opening of the servo valve is controlled so the deflation rate maintains a predetermined deflation profile. The piezo electric valve performs in a similar manner except the control of the valve opening is done by varying the voltage applied to the valve.
The Servo or proportional control valves used in the linear bleed method are expensive and are relatively power hungry. Piezo electric valves are also limited to a narrow temperature range for operation. This range is smaller than the band specified by the NIBP device. For example, 100.degree. F. is a temperature in which a patient could be exposed to, but the piezo electric valve will not function properly.